Act 3,5 Luxury Cruise - THE CURSED SHIP
by Sailor Propranolol
Summary: Because of Sailor Moon Crystal's severe lack of character- and friendship-oriented episodes, I decided to make my own. Set between act 3 and 4. Inspired by episode 12 of the original anime. 1-2 scenes per chapter.
1. Scene 1: The Shop - Wheel of Fortune

It was way too early in the morning when Rei left the shrine to go to school.

Not that it was an unusual thing, Rei was always on time. Every night she fell asleep at nine o'clock. Every day she woke up one hour before school started. Every time she walked there, occasionally stopping if something on the road had changed since last time, then sat by the same parkbench in the schoolyard to read her books before class.

Tradition, routine and sameness comforted her.

Rei bit her lip. Running away to save Usagi marked the first time in months that she had broken her everyday routine. And she suspected this would continue. Soldier of justice, huh? Fighting youma was not something you could put on a schedule. The enemy could attack any moment, any second. Perhaps sometimes Rei would be able to predict it by looking into the fire, but she did not always have fire with her. School, for example, had no fire.

The sound of voices interrupted her thoughts.

Rei looked to her left. Lots of people were standing at something that looked like a small shop. Rei recognized it from before: it had been closed down due to not having any visitors. However, there it was, open, with lots of customers, despite it being so early on the morning. Rei hesitated, but her curiousity beat her, and she walked up to the people.

"Please, one more chance!" a man begged. "My wife and I really need these tickets..." He pouted. "Our marriage needs it."

The salesman smiled. "Just come back tomorrow and try again one last time, Mr Aino."

The man with the last name Aino sighed. A woman looked really frustrated. Rei felt slightly unease in the crowd, but was not sure why.

"Oh," the salesman said, looking at Rei intently. "You are the priestess with psychic powers."

Rei gulped. Everyone had turned around to stare at her. She disliked attention, especially since the bus incidents. Even though they had stopped since then, after what was rumoured to be due to the mysterious heroines in sailor-suits, some people were still staring at her and wondering about her involvement.

Of course, her actual involvement in the situations was definitely not the role of kidnapper... But no one could know that.

However, the salesman kept smiling. Rei realised the unease she felt was coming from him. Something was wrong with him. As if he had other intentions...

"Why don't you try our wheel of fortune?" he asked.

Rei glared at him. One part of her wanted to throw an ofuda in his face, but she remembered when she had accidentally done so at Usagi. All the people here were already suspicious towards her after the bus incidents, and more attention was definitely not something she wanted, especially not since she became a guardian of justice. Staying out of the spotlight was more important than ever.

There was only one way to determine if her intuition was wrong or not...

"That sounds fun," Rei said coldly.

The salesman grabbed the wheel. A woman next to Rei turned closer to her and whispered in her ear:

"Good luck. I've heard the odds of winning are less than 1 percent... Such a robbery!"

Rei did not reply to the woman. Instead she let the man start spinning it. She watched him closely. _Maybe I am biased because of how much I distrust men_, Rei thought to herself. An image of her father briefly showed up in her mind. Rei felt herself starting to shake in anger just by the thought of him.

"Stop!" Rei commanded.

And the wheel started to slow down.

Rei's eyes did not leave the salesman.

Everyone suddenly gasped.

"CONGRATULATIONS!" the salesman screamed. Rei blinked and stared at the wheel. Indeed, she had won. Her eyes widened as the crowd started half-cheering, half-swearing over how the winner wasn't them. Before she had the time to ask what she had won, the salesman put two tickets in her hand. "Tickets to the luxury romantic cruise!"

Wait, what-...

Rei's face immediately turned red. _Romantic cruise_. Of course. The only thing in her life she was certain she did not need. But everyone around her were congratulating her on winning. Rei forced a smile and then put the tickets in her pocket, turning around to run away from all the people as fast as she could.

_Romantic cruise_, the words rang in her head.

She finally stopped running when she reached a nearby park. The park made Rei feel comfortable and nostalgic, remembering how grandpa used to take her there, insisting leaving the shrine occasionally was a good thing. Rei disagreed of course, but she could not deny that she now appreciated it.

_What can I do with these?_ She thought to herself, looking at the tickets in her hand.


	2. Scene 2-3: Dark Kingdom - Juuban High

The salesman kept spinning the wheel for them. Free tickets to a romantic cruise, obtainable just by winning like this. Even the psychic girl he had heard so much about had easily been fooled.

Nephrite smiled to himself. Gathering energy for the great ruler was so easy.

"Ami-chan!" Usagi exclaimed, skipping towards Ami. She put down her lunchbox next to her and gave her a hug. Ami blushed. "Fighting youma is so scary," Usagi said. "I'm so glad I have you and Rei-chan to support me, Ami-chan."

Ami nodded. "We are a great team, Usagi-chan." Usagi giggled.

"You are too cute Ami-chan!" Usagi said.

Ami showed Usagi her tablet. "I did some research on Sailor V yesterday," she said. Usagi nodded enthusiastically. Sailor V had to join them too! "And I found something strange," Ami said, showing Usagi a picture of the Sailor V game. "No one knows who developed the Sailor V game. A huge delivery of them just showed up at all arcades in Japan one day."

"That's strange," Usagi said, tilting her head a bit.

"It could be that Sailor V invented the game herself," Ami suggested. "But being a soldier of justice and a game-maker at the same time seems tricky..."

Usagi did not respond, already imagining how Sailor V would fight by her side against the youma. The youma used ropes on Usagi, making her unable to move. "V-chan!" Usagi would yell, and Sailor V would use her crescent beam attack from the game to crush the youma in one blow. "V-chan, you're so cool!" Usagi would say again, then run up to her and hug. Sailor V would flip her hair and give Usagi a shining smile. "Let's braid each other's hair, Usagi-chan," she would say. "Yes!" Usagi would reply enthusiastically...

"Usagi?" Ami said, waving her hand in front of Usagi's eyes.

"Oh, sorry Ami-chan," Usagi said, trying to focus again.

"I just said maybe Sailor V created the game for a reason," Ami said. "Remember how we won the pens in the arcade game machine? Luna must have rigged the game somehow, so then she must know how it works."

Usagi's eyes widened. "Luna secretly knows Sailor V?" she asked.

"That's not what I-" Ami started, but Usagi was already stuck in her own thoughts.

"Why does Luna get to meet Sailor V-chan and not me?" she pouted, thinking about how poor Sailor V-chan must feel. Poor Sailor V-chan, dreaming to meet Usagi-chan, creating the game just to inspire Usagi-chan as a soldier, telling Luna to please let her meet Usagi-chan soon. Then they would meet, and Usagi-chan would run up to Sailor V-chan with hearts in her eyes and hug her and make her happy forever. And then-...

"Usagi, did you play the arcade game last night instead of studying?" Ami asked.

Usagi snapped back to reality. "Only for a few hours!" she said, nodding to her own statement. Ami giggled. "But I am bad at studying," Usagi said, flapping her arms. "I am good at the arcade game... Well, not as good as you of course, Ami-chan, but it's something."

Ami smiled. "It's all right, Usagi," she said. "You are good at many other things."

"Many other things?" Usagi repeated quietly to herself, while Ami kept tapping her fingers on her tablet to try to find more information about Sailor V.

A few tables away, Naru was sitting with Yumiko and Kuri. Yumiko and Kuri were loudly discussing the luxury cruise they wanted tickets for so badly.

"I'm so jealous of the people with tickets," Yumiko whined. "The wheel is impossible to win on and all the tickets being sold are too expensive." She sighed, turning her face away from Kuri as she mumbled the rest. "If only my family had more money..."

"I could probably ask my dad to buy," Kuri said. "But if he did, then I would need to bring someone, and I don't have a boyfriend..."

Yumiko looked at her with her eyebrows up, as if to say _you could bring me_, but Kuri didn't seem to notice. Naru just stared at Usagi and Mizuno by the other table.

_Usagi_, she thought to herself. _Why are we never hanging out anymore_?

Ever since Usagi started hanging out with that genius girl in the other class, everything had changed. Usagi was not answering phonecalls, even her mother seemed unsure where she was sometimes, and every lunch she would sit with Mizuno instead of her. Naru looked at Usagi longingly.

_Usagi_...

Naru remembered three years ago, when guys were being mean to her, pushing her into walls and mocking her. _Ugliest girl in our grade_, they called her. Naru was used to it, so she did not say much. Until she met Usagi...

"All girls are pretty, especially Naru-chan!" she had yelled at them. Then the guys started making fun of Usagi's hairstyle. She just stuck her tongue out at them. "You are just jealous because your hair is so short!" she said back at them. The guys finally just rolled their eyes and left.

And they never bothered Naru again.

Naru remembered the confusion she felt at Usagi knowing her name. But Usagi just reached out her hand to pull Naru up from the floor they pushed her down on. "Hi, I'm Usagi!" she said enthusiastically. Then she winked at her. "I'm a protector of cute girls!" Naru just stared at her in disbelief. "Don't listen to those guys," Usagi added. "They don't know anything! All girls are beautiful, that's why Usagi-chan protects them!"

Naru kept staring at her for a while, then she laughed. Usagi smiled.

"Hey, Naru-chan," Usagi said. "Let's go somewhere after school, okay?"

"Okay," Naru nodded.

Naru looked at Usagi and Mizuno, trying not to feel envy. Because she could see just by looking at Mizuno-san that the exact same thing had happened here. Usagi had walked in, made her feel less lonely, put a smile on her face, changed her life in a heartbeat.

_Yumiko and Kuri have each other_, Naru thought to herself. _But I have no one, Usagi-chan... Are you best friends with Mizuno-san now instead of me?_


End file.
